


The Tell-Tale Heart - Alternate Ending

by TomBaby



Category: The Tell-Tale Heart - Edgar Allan Poe
Genre: Alternate Ending, Gen, Insanity, Psychological Horror, Scary, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-19
Updated: 2015-11-19
Packaged: 2018-05-02 11:14:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5246219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TomBaby/pseuds/TomBaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I swear I'm not mad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tell-Tale Heart - Alternate Ending

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written when I was in 7th grade (I'm a Junior now). I didn't bother to edit it. I know there are errors in formatting and probably quite a bit in grammar, but I wanted my thought process to run through.

A few days after the policemen had left I went to check on the body. To make sure it hadn’t moved. The truth is, its smell was starting to engulf the house. When I was walking out of the room after checking on him, I heard a moan. A moan and then a creak. A very loud creak. The floor boards ripped open and just before I slammed shut the door, I saw was a figure. No. It couldn’t be. That vulture eye? The old man’s face up again? Walking? I do not believe it. These were stories I’d heard as a child. The undead were not real things. My mind must be playing dirty tricks on me… but you see --I’m not mad.

I could hear his heartbeat. So loud that it’s pounding in my ears. I would be able to hear this from a mile away! I opened the door just a crack so I could make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. A sliver of light shines through and I see a creature. It seems that --if so by magic—his limbs had reattached themselves. He was dripping and oozing with blood. His jaw hung limply from his half decayed face. And the eye, you ask? Oh, the eye was there. Staring straight at me. Judging me. Whispering to me all of my secrets that I’ve hidden for years.

Never before had this eye been more terrifying… more gruesome and revealing than now. I barely stayed on my feet as the door was shoved open and the creature came tumbling and stumbling towards me. I threw open the front door, ran outside (as you see that is a short distance, being that the house was so small), and grabbed the first large, fallen tree branch I could find. I pointed it at the door, but I did not see the monster. Of course it was as black as pitch, but I could not hear him either. I walked slowly, ever so slowly back towards the house. And it seems that out of nowhere the hellion jumps at me. Now, he just barely missed me, as I moved too quickly for the slow beast.

Now I saw two figures running at us, “HELP! HELP ME!” I scream. The two men look at me as if disgusted. But no! They must be looking at the foul creature. Their noses must be turned up at the putrid stench. They aren’t looking at me because I am not mad.  
They are policemen. I must not have seen or heard them coming being as I had the monster attacking me. They pull me up and cuff me. I ask them why they’re just walking away and leaving such a creature behind to cause havoc on others, but the only response I get is a scoff. I looked back over my shoulder to check if it’s still there and I saw nothing. It must look to them as if I was fighting thin air. And perhaps I was. Perhaps there never was a vulture eye or a reanimated heart. Perhaps I was mad.

But now, I say “was” because the story I am telling you now was from the past. I looked behind me one last time, Reader, and I saw a trail of blood leading from the spot I was fighting at to the front door. What I saw must’ve been real.


End file.
